eye-spots are in some way correlated. I have noticed, in various breeds,
every gradation, from the whole face being tan-coloured, to a complete ring
round the eyes, to a minute spot over the inner and upper corners. The
spots occur in various sub-breeds of terriers and spaniels; in setters; in
hounds of various kinds, including the turnspit-like German badger-hound;
in shepherd dogs; in a mongrel, of which neither parent had the spots; in
one pure bulldog, though the spots were in this case almost white; and in
greyhounds,--but true black-and-tan greyhounds are excessively rare;
nevertheless I have been assured by Mr. Warwick, that one ran at the
Caledonian Champion meeting of April 1860, and was "marked precisely like a
black-and-tan terrier." This dog, or another exactly the same colour, ran
at the Scottish National Club on the 21st of March, 1865; and I hear from
Mr. C.M. Browne, that "there was no reason either on the sire or dam side
for the appearance of this unusual colour." Mr. Swinhoe at my request
looked at the dogs in China, at Amoy, and he soon noticed a brown dog with
yellow spots over the eyes. Colonel H. Smith (1/40. 'The Naturalist
Library' Dogs, volume 10 pages 4, 19.) figures the magnificent black
mastiff of Thibet with a tan-coloured stripe over the eyes, feet, and
chaps; and what is more singular, he figures the Alco, or native domestic
dog of Mexico, as black and white, with narrow tan-coloured rings round the
eyes; at the Exhibition of dogs in London, May 1863, a so-called forest dog
from North-West Mexico was shown, which had pale tan-coloured spots over
the eyes. The occurrence of these tan-coloured spots in dogs of such
extremely different breeds, living in various parts of the world, makes the
fact highly remarkable.
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